For the better part of the last 3 months, I’ve been neck deep in textbooks, articles, and diverse dissertations among social scientists. The class I learned the most from was POLS 2070, an upper division political science class that discussed diversity and US politics.
During that time, I’ve learned about “Lies my Teacher Told Me,” and I thought I’d share a few new revelations. So sit back, grab yourself a slice of good ol’ American apple pie and some chocolate milk. This should be at the very least, entertaining, brow-raising and educational. There’s also the chance you might vomit a little bit. So read on, if you dare, to learn some controversial truths about our United States of America.
Thomas Jefferson was “inspired” to write the Declaration of Independence, claiming that “all men are created equal.” He was so inspired that he probably forgot all about those 175 slaves he owned back on his homestead of Monticello, Virginia. I’m guessing he didn’t think much of his ownership of other living people since his property ballooned up to 225 people at the peak of his slave ownership. Monticello, Virginia, I’ve been there and it’s nothing short of beautiful. I have newfound respect for those who made it such.
I learned that Christopher Columbus was an a-hole. Oh, and a rapist and murderer. Instead of giving the 10,000 gold that was promised to the first man to spot land on his voyage to find the back passage to the West Indies, he selfishly claimed it for himself, saying he saw a man walking with a torch of fire along the shore the night before. Right, when you were 80 miles off land, you saw a guy carrying a torch? That makes sense. Because he was “the People’s Hero,” Columbus supervised, allowed and instructed the killings of about 500,000 indigenous people in the 10 years the Spanish were making trips back and forth from Europe in the name of the Spanish crown. If the indigenous, who would gladly give of all their substance wouldn’t bring him what he wanted, Columbus would chop off their arms, especially if they didn’t bring enough gold. How compassionate. Good thing we don’t have a holiday named after this Grade AAA clown.
In another lecture, I learned that African-Americans couldn’t get interest-earning bank accounts until the 1980s. Their money was better off left under their mattresses or sock drawers. They couldn’t pass any savings along to the next generations, because there were not safe places to house extra cash. Did you know that when a black family moves into a pre-dominantly white neighborhood, the home values drop 3 to 4 percent in a year? “Redlining” is a real and common practice. These acts are still observed in 75 percent of real estate laws under the Federal Housing Administration.
One million black GIs returning from World War II were stifled and shocked when they couldn’t move into neighborhoods after they had just secured the beaches of far away lands while the USA claimed victory. Blacks felt as if they had been shafted once again, the first time coming just after the Civil War concluded. Abraham Lincoln promised every former black slave “40 acres and a mule” if they served in the Northern Army and swore to fend off the powerful Southern troops. When the North won, and Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson had all the power in his hands, and could have really united this country for the better. Instead of making good on Lincoln’s promise, Johnson’s inaction made him one of the USA’s most terrible and ineffective presidents of all-time by choosing not to honor his predecessor’s promise to all black men throughout the country.
**That anecdote reminds me of Isildur in Lord of the Rings: He has the power to banish evil for all-time, yet he lets the power go straight to his head, and he ultimately pays the price by not getting anything done under his administration.**
Way to go, powerful White Americans! Now I begin to understand why minorities hate white people so much. Here’s a fun fact: White Americans will be the minorities by the year 2035. Now I can laugh at the comment my former boss used to say all the time, “Why can’t they just learn English? No one is ever going to need to learn Spanish.” It’s good to know I don’t have to work for people who possess such narrow-minded traits.
I read firsthand accounts of border patrolmen lining up headshots on Mexicans and other Latin Americans on sight. The border patrol are trying to prevent the influx of immigrants who want to come to the United States for better opportunities, much like the patrols’ white ancestors did through Ellis Island. Only back then, certain races weren’t allowed to go through that port. Asians: nope (reference the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act: effectively banning Asian immigration from 1924 to 1965.) Mexicans: no. African-Americans: no, for the most part, excused if they were slaves or indentured servants. And of course, Arabs: no. Some things never change. Never mind that Europeans wiped out tens of millions of indigenous people that engaged in “awfully disgusting practices” such as bathing, sharing crops, and prohibiting private property. Surely, we as European Americans would not stoop so low as to the hideous and primitive habit of actually grooming ourselves.
And here’s one more, just for kicks and giggles.
When Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich were declaring the parameters to which the Germans, Polish, French and all under their rule would live by, they didn’t “write the book” on Eugenics or racial science. Nope, they went back to the good old annals of American literature and science. Thomas Jefferson and Louis Agassiz, contemporaries in the early 1800s wrote about the differences between the different peoples of the world: Slaves from Africa, men from the East Orient, those of European descent. How else to rule the peasants with superiority? Why, create the idea of race, of course! By creating a social agenda and putting yourself at the top of it because you have all the money and power, you can create a rift between people just by suggesting, “There really is something different about these people.”
Something tells me Thomas Jefferson was incredibly vexed at the end of the day. This man’s accomplishments were truly remarkable. Here he was promoting freedom, liberty and democracy on one hand, and a system of slavery and exploitation of non-white peoples with the other. Maybe Two-Face wasn’t just a DC comic book character in Batman. Maybe Jefferson’s ambiguous antics inspired this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character in the mid 1900s.
You can read all about how the idea of RACE and its origins appeared in, “Notes on the State of Virginia” by Thomas Jefferson. TJ will tell you all the reasons why blacks are inferior to whites, and might even convince you that “Homo sapiens Europaeus were much more enlightened than other peoples of this world, and therefore, loved by God on a greater level.”
“What a bunch of crap,” I say, but then, men like Jefferson have been elevated by historians, put on the grandest pedestal, and therefore ought to not be slandered or have their intellectual output challenged.
If the 3rd president of the United States wrote it, then it must be true. Truth is, Thomas Jefferson was an egomaniac, and an “Enlightened” jerk. If he really did receive inspiration from a divine source to create the Declaration of Independence, I’d imagine he lost his seat on the express train to heaven by following up the D of I by “creating race” and becoming the world’s first racist. All in an attempt to create even more reason to have “superior people” immigrate to the United States. Way to go, douche canoe!
Not only did Jefferson get bumped from my list of all-time favorite historical figures, he did a body slam down all 105 flights of stairs. Gone baby gone. Now, Teddy Roosevelt is climbing the ranks, even if he was the one that suggested a death tax on inheritances. Stupid estate tax!
In the long run, it seems we got a fair deal from the Nazis. We gave them the intellectual property of eugenics to justify killing 6 million Jews in World War II, and they gave us the concept of freeways and interstates. I’d imagine Hitler probably picked up a few other ideas on how to wipe out and displace countless generations of people from their native lands as well from US history.
That information was from five different lectures, just for starters. A sliver of information I received this semester. Like Neo, I ‘took the red pill’ and made the plunge, just to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Articles, antiquated journal entries from historians, and research papers have enlightened my world and caused massive rifts throughout the memory channels of my brain. It’s completely ironic that capitalism and colonization have brought so much terror upon those peoples who lived on the American continent since the late 15th century and have been massacred, yet the USA is the exemplary country that so many others applaud. I mean, hey: we made the first Constitution. We had the power to VOTE, (minor details regarding the fact that only 37% of those living in the Colonies at that time actually possessed that right).
You have to admit, our history is pretty messed up. Columbus didn’t “discover” the American continent. Those living here knew where they lived. Even in their “savage, primitive and backwards” minds.
At the end of each class in Diversity and US Politics, it was almost as if Paul Harvey was in the background. Telling us like he did so famously saying, “And that, is the rest of the story.”
Here are some of the book titles and articles which I studied this semester:
“The Truth about the First Thanksgiving” from Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen
“Notes on the State of Virginia” by Thomas Jefferson
“The Plan of Creation in the Animal Kingdom” by Louis Agassiz
“White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling
*“The White Use of Blacks in America” by Dan Levy, circa 1971
“The People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn
“Never Meant to Survive” by Aimee Sands
Federal Housing Administration, circa 1930
*Banned book in many states
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Human Resources Department
November 3, 2009
Dear Prospective Employer,
Thank you for the opportunity for me to come in and review the requirements needed to apply for your job. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to see the inner workings of your company and for exposing the faulty foundation that is known as your Human Resources Department. Thank you for showing your true colors and true ideals, and not your so-called virtues and accurate façade of elevated self-perception.
I applaud you in not giving me the job that I so wholly qualified for, and I thank you for not appreciating the vigor, sense and passion that is needed to do the job as it needs to be done correctly. Thank you for keeping me from the insidious backbiting and inner turmoil that is presented at a Friday morning meeting that requires cheerleading and trivial incentives to help me meet the quota that will require selling my fresh soul for that $15 per hour, just to make the Department Head look viable and successful.
How dare you, Spiteful and soulless entity, try and take away a chance for an extraordinary individual such as I to be true to myself in preserving the option to serve others that deserve my unhindered power and vivacity to work hard, my gusto and punch in seeing the world come to a balance, and to create results of a different matter, a matter of greater importance! How dare you remove a sliver of possible providence to one who needs a course correction that only I can steer them toward?
How dare you, mischievous sprite, try and squeeze my rare intellect into the glass box of darkness and squiggly arrows, pointing to a land of retirement, 401(k), and have me cling to a hope that my life will mean more when I’m 70 than it does to this day. How dare you pull the wool over mine eyes so that I may not feel the work I’ve been made to endure, to earn an honest wage, that I would be trapped by a false sense and purpose in achieving the intangible feelings the Almighty dollar so pertinently exudes as it eats away at one’s destiny come Friday morning, only to be filled with a monstrous remorse and the feeling of a nutrition-starved stomach the following Monday, as you would have me creep in like a caffeine-imbibing drone and nicotine-dependent zombie.
You shall not touch me again, dastardly fiend! I will prove you herewith, that only under my circumstances will we again meet at that stone table to discuss the issues and affairs I see fit to navigate with your help. Until then, begone immoral and shameful pretender! Off with you, false prophet!
Sincerely,
Yours Truly
Dear Prospective Employer,
Thank you for the opportunity for me to come in and review the requirements needed to apply for your job. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to see the inner workings of your company and for exposing the faulty foundation that is known as your Human Resources Department. Thank you for showing your true colors and true ideals, and not your so-called virtues and accurate façade of elevated self-perception.
I applaud you in not giving me the job that I so wholly qualified for, and I thank you for not appreciating the vigor, sense and passion that is needed to do the job as it needs to be done correctly. Thank you for keeping me from the insidious backbiting and inner turmoil that is presented at a Friday morning meeting that requires cheerleading and trivial incentives to help me meet the quota that will require selling my fresh soul for that $15 per hour, just to make the Department Head look viable and successful.
How dare you, Spiteful and soulless entity, try and take away a chance for an extraordinary individual such as I to be true to myself in preserving the option to serve others that deserve my unhindered power and vivacity to work hard, my gusto and punch in seeing the world come to a balance, and to create results of a different matter, a matter of greater importance! How dare you remove a sliver of possible providence to one who needs a course correction that only I can steer them toward?
How dare you, mischievous sprite, try and squeeze my rare intellect into the glass box of darkness and squiggly arrows, pointing to a land of retirement, 401(k), and have me cling to a hope that my life will mean more when I’m 70 than it does to this day. How dare you pull the wool over mine eyes so that I may not feel the work I’ve been made to endure, to earn an honest wage, that I would be trapped by a false sense and purpose in achieving the intangible feelings the Almighty dollar so pertinently exudes as it eats away at one’s destiny come Friday morning, only to be filled with a monstrous remorse and the feeling of a nutrition-starved stomach the following Monday, as you would have me creep in like a caffeine-imbibing drone and nicotine-dependent zombie.
You shall not touch me again, dastardly fiend! I will prove you herewith, that only under my circumstances will we again meet at that stone table to discuss the issues and affairs I see fit to navigate with your help. Until then, begone immoral and shameful pretender! Off with you, false prophet!
Sincerely,
Yours Truly
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Manchester United vs Barcelona UEFA CL 05-27-09
I absitively posolutely CANNOT wait for this game coming up next Wednesday!
For Barcelona, you have Lionel Messi the Magician, a 5'7 145 finesse controlled player that compares to the likes of Diego Marradona, and Messi is only 21 years old!
And in the opposite corner, the powerful yet precise winger for Manchester United Cristiano Ronaldo, 6'1 175 Portuguese sniper who is the current Ballon d'Or (World MVP) and best player for the World Club/Premier League Champions/UEFA Champions League Defending Champions Manchester United, a team I have been following religiously for the last 2 amazing seasons.
Tune in at 1245 MST on ESPN on May 27, 2009 to watch what players, writers, coaches and all of Earth's fandom are saying will be the best Champions League Final EVER!
Glory Glory Man United!
For Barcelona, you have Lionel Messi the Magician, a 5'7 145 finesse controlled player that compares to the likes of Diego Marradona, and Messi is only 21 years old!
And in the opposite corner, the powerful yet precise winger for Manchester United Cristiano Ronaldo, 6'1 175 Portuguese sniper who is the current Ballon d'Or (World MVP) and best player for the World Club/Premier League Champions/UEFA Champions League Defending Champions Manchester United, a team I have been following religiously for the last 2 amazing seasons.
Tune in at 1245 MST on ESPN on May 27, 2009 to watch what players, writers, coaches and all of Earth's fandom are saying will be the best Champions League Final EVER!
Glory Glory Man United!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
BCS: You know the money will come
Having chosen this topic, I have to point out the fact that what I want in this case, does not indeed matter because money will always talk louder than the wants of a mountain man that happens to be a fan of the greatest football team of 2008: The University of Utah Runnin' Utes.
I don't understand why we don't have a playoff system in place. In what other sport does going undefeated NOT mark you as the champion?
USC: Give me a break. You lost to Oregon State, and we beat them. Negative 20 points and go to the back of the line.
Alabama: We crushed you like Miyagi crushes a grape. Get out of my sight.
Oklahoma: You were beaten by Texas, and Bob Stoops is a fathead. Don't ask me what kind of favors he had to perform for the BCS to bring him in. This is a PG rated blog, so don't even try to enlighten me.
Texas: You were beaten by Texas Tech, but I still think you should have been in the running even though you barely beat Ohio State.
Penn State: You lost to an unranked Iowa team. 'Nuff said.
Boise State: Sure, you had a great season. But when you play Cal Poly Tech State, no one cares.
Florida: We should have played you for the Championship. You will be representing the #2 team in the nation behind the Utes tonight. Let the magic of Percy Harvin, Tim Tebow and the greatest coaching job in the NCAA of Urban Meyer hold sway and destroy those silly Sooners.
BYU, Boise State and other Cinderella schools listen up! The fact Utah has busted the BCS twice now and haven't had a shot at the title is a complete sham. We have gone undefeated twice in the last 5 years, and they won't let us duke it out with the big boys. The BCS should be ashamed of themselves. You would think all that money would do something in the way of fairness and provide all 119 schools with a legit shot at #1, not just the popular 66 teams.
Mr President of the BCS: YOU SUCK! Even President-Elect Obama KNOWS we should have a playoff. March Madness is HUGE! Now just get rid of the 42 day hiatus for the preparations of a bowl game and let's do this!
Sixteen team playoff. That's 4 weeks, and we can even give the title game a two week preparation like the Super Bowl. Someone needs to explain this to me AND Kyle Whittingham why it won't work. Get off your collective fat butts and get this going into overdrive!
The College football playoff system will be so AWESOME! What are you waiting for?
I don't understand why we don't have a playoff system in place. In what other sport does going undefeated NOT mark you as the champion?
USC: Give me a break. You lost to Oregon State, and we beat them. Negative 20 points and go to the back of the line.
Alabama: We crushed you like Miyagi crushes a grape. Get out of my sight.
Oklahoma: You were beaten by Texas, and Bob Stoops is a fathead. Don't ask me what kind of favors he had to perform for the BCS to bring him in. This is a PG rated blog, so don't even try to enlighten me.
Texas: You were beaten by Texas Tech, but I still think you should have been in the running even though you barely beat Ohio State.
Penn State: You lost to an unranked Iowa team. 'Nuff said.
Boise State: Sure, you had a great season. But when you play Cal Poly Tech State, no one cares.
Florida: We should have played you for the Championship. You will be representing the #2 team in the nation behind the Utes tonight. Let the magic of Percy Harvin, Tim Tebow and the greatest coaching job in the NCAA of Urban Meyer hold sway and destroy those silly Sooners.
BYU, Boise State and other Cinderella schools listen up! The fact Utah has busted the BCS twice now and haven't had a shot at the title is a complete sham. We have gone undefeated twice in the last 5 years, and they won't let us duke it out with the big boys. The BCS should be ashamed of themselves. You would think all that money would do something in the way of fairness and provide all 119 schools with a legit shot at #1, not just the popular 66 teams.
Mr President of the BCS: YOU SUCK! Even President-Elect Obama KNOWS we should have a playoff. March Madness is HUGE! Now just get rid of the 42 day hiatus for the preparations of a bowl game and let's do this!
Sixteen team playoff. That's 4 weeks, and we can even give the title game a two week preparation like the Super Bowl. Someone needs to explain this to me AND Kyle Whittingham why it won't work. Get off your collective fat butts and get this going into overdrive!
The College football playoff system will be so AWESOME! What are you waiting for?
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Push Along!
I am an anonymous political bystander who has elevated thoughts roll through his head just asking to be inspired by a higher power and when prompted, I feel the greatest achievement when I can transcribe these thoughts to paper.
Just the evening prior, a man named Barack Obama was elected 44th President of the United States of America. He is the first African American to hold this title, and as a registered Independent, I voted for him in both the Primaries and yesterday’s election. I am happy to see the literal face of change in the government. There are more women and people of different ancestry than Europeans that are in the Senate, House and the White House. I find it wonderful and beautiful that my country is reaching into the corners of the world to extract such people that can bring about change and usher in democracy in new ways, perhaps better than what has been done in the past few decades.
Having said that, I wish to press upon a more local issue, and that would be the stake of the mindset of the LDS Saints. Just over 150 years ago, the LDS faith carried itself over the plains and fields of the Midwest in order to escape harsh judgment and unethical treatment of its people. They found the Great Salt Lake Valley, and they have been able to prosper ever since. We sought refuge from people who judged us because of our beliefs. These people were even willing to put us to death because of the way we lived our lives.
I would tell the generation of my people, those who profess to follow Christ through their daily affirmations and actions: Thou shalt not whine.
We have the knowledge of the Gospel in our lives, and you mean to tell me that you think the future leader of our country, even Barack Hussein Obama is “The Anti-Christ”? What have you done? You have suggested a tyrannical name for a man who has not even been tested. You compare him to Stalin, Lenin and Hitler because he wants the best for everyone in his country?
Can you truly call yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ when you judge a man for works he has not even committed? If so, I am truly ashamed of you, and of what you represent. In times of despair, instead of lashing out against someone you hardly know, who you don’t know that much about, you hit your knees in the evening and you pray that God will direct our President’s affairs, and that he will find that guiding light that we all look for in our lives to make the most important decisions that affect us all!
Obama is NOT a Muslim, he was baptized in the Trinity Church in Chicago in 1998. He is an educated, wonderful person. And who are YOU to say that he isn’t?
I think it’s time that we all do as my sophomore basketball coach suggested and, “Quit whining and telling me that you CAN’T do it, and get out there and do as you have been asked. And no bellyaching!”
We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I want to hear people talk about a bright outlook and hear that we can foster strength in our children against tough times, and that we can shore up our sails against tumultuous winds and storms because of our FAITH in the Gospel.
I wish to hear no more of Anti-Christs, assassinations so that our country may become free. The man has not even been tested yet, and I am hearing FOUL things from the mouths of Saints concerning the welfare of our next President.
Surely our prophets will not lead us astray, and if you do not listen to me, then for all that is good and holy in this world, listen to THEM! We should not judge those who do not deserve harsh judgments, lest we become just like those who would push us away because of our “different” beliefs. Honestly my people let us once again renew our faith and wish the best for our leaders. There is a REASON he has been elected. You cannot dismiss him because he chooses a different path, and who knows what kind of influence he may have in spreading democracy around the world. Let us pay our tithing, and if our country asks us to give more, then we should, and seek to find the good in these works, in fact we can help our neighbors all around us.
Let us celebrate our democracy and stop complaining. I don’t want to hear whining from those people, just do as you have always done and put your shoulder to the wheel and push along for all of heaven’s sake!
-Kevin B Wright
Just the evening prior, a man named Barack Obama was elected 44th President of the United States of America. He is the first African American to hold this title, and as a registered Independent, I voted for him in both the Primaries and yesterday’s election. I am happy to see the literal face of change in the government. There are more women and people of different ancestry than Europeans that are in the Senate, House and the White House. I find it wonderful and beautiful that my country is reaching into the corners of the world to extract such people that can bring about change and usher in democracy in new ways, perhaps better than what has been done in the past few decades.
Having said that, I wish to press upon a more local issue, and that would be the stake of the mindset of the LDS Saints. Just over 150 years ago, the LDS faith carried itself over the plains and fields of the Midwest in order to escape harsh judgment and unethical treatment of its people. They found the Great Salt Lake Valley, and they have been able to prosper ever since. We sought refuge from people who judged us because of our beliefs. These people were even willing to put us to death because of the way we lived our lives.
I would tell the generation of my people, those who profess to follow Christ through their daily affirmations and actions: Thou shalt not whine.
We have the knowledge of the Gospel in our lives, and you mean to tell me that you think the future leader of our country, even Barack Hussein Obama is “The Anti-Christ”? What have you done? You have suggested a tyrannical name for a man who has not even been tested. You compare him to Stalin, Lenin and Hitler because he wants the best for everyone in his country?
Can you truly call yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ when you judge a man for works he has not even committed? If so, I am truly ashamed of you, and of what you represent. In times of despair, instead of lashing out against someone you hardly know, who you don’t know that much about, you hit your knees in the evening and you pray that God will direct our President’s affairs, and that he will find that guiding light that we all look for in our lives to make the most important decisions that affect us all!
Obama is NOT a Muslim, he was baptized in the Trinity Church in Chicago in 1998. He is an educated, wonderful person. And who are YOU to say that he isn’t?
I think it’s time that we all do as my sophomore basketball coach suggested and, “Quit whining and telling me that you CAN’T do it, and get out there and do as you have been asked. And no bellyaching!”
We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I want to hear people talk about a bright outlook and hear that we can foster strength in our children against tough times, and that we can shore up our sails against tumultuous winds and storms because of our FAITH in the Gospel.
I wish to hear no more of Anti-Christs, assassinations so that our country may become free. The man has not even been tested yet, and I am hearing FOUL things from the mouths of Saints concerning the welfare of our next President.
Surely our prophets will not lead us astray, and if you do not listen to me, then for all that is good and holy in this world, listen to THEM! We should not judge those who do not deserve harsh judgments, lest we become just like those who would push us away because of our “different” beliefs. Honestly my people let us once again renew our faith and wish the best for our leaders. There is a REASON he has been elected. You cannot dismiss him because he chooses a different path, and who knows what kind of influence he may have in spreading democracy around the world. Let us pay our tithing, and if our country asks us to give more, then we should, and seek to find the good in these works, in fact we can help our neighbors all around us.
Let us celebrate our democracy and stop complaining. I don’t want to hear whining from those people, just do as you have always done and put your shoulder to the wheel and push along for all of heaven’s sake!
-Kevin B Wright
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
I know...I was an idiot in 2000
I especially like the bumper sticker I consistently notice driving through the townships in the SL Valley: If you aren't pissed off, you are clearly not paying attention. Bush Campaign 2000-2008.
I regret to announce that I did indeed vote for George W Bush in 2000. I didn't know anything about Al Gore, except that I found it funny that he kept reminding us that he invented the Internet. I just thought that maybe since George HW Bush had done a decent enough job at the White House, his son might echo his works in legacy. Boy, was I wrong. I think that Dubya may be the dumbest president we've had to date, only slightly more dumb than Dan Quayle, and that's saying a LOT. Our President has made the USA more isolated than at any time previous in the history of our great nation. His wannabe replacement, John McCain and his pet pitbull with lipstick (Palin) scare me even more. Yes, she did refer to herself as a pitbull. With lipstick. Leno, O'Brien and Letterman were all thanking the heavens after that quip.
McCain and Palin say they love this country. I say "Bull@#$%!" Maybe more like America in the 1950's. They are holding onto the Good Ole Boy system and will not let go. All I heard last night was one-liners of sarcasm, finger pointing and hatred. Palin thinks the biggest problem in the country right now is Barack Obama. Maybe she should get out of the hockey arena and start travelling to the Lower 48 every once in a while. I got a text from my uber-conservative friend now living in Chicago last night immediately following Palin's speech and he said he was impressed. I was NOT impressed, however, and I think that people like Sarah Palin are going to destroy this country. She sure knew how to divide herself from anyone respectable. Did you hear one positive aspect of her opponent? Does she have any idea that once he wins, her son that is slated to leave for the war, will be calling Obama his Commander-in-Chief and that she will have to support him? Talk about burning bridges from the get-go.
I believe that we need to change or reshape the face of the United States of America. For example, I don't believe that leaders, men or women, have the right to tell a woman what she can or can't do with her own body, even if it means having an abortion. We DO NOT KNOW when life really begins for these babies, and that's beside the point. It is NOT free agency when we tell someone what they can or can't do. Let the women make their choices, it's theirs to make. The devil tells us what we have to do, not our leaders. Our true leaders give us a choice. I don't want to have my wife or sisters go through abortions, but I will respect the rights of my countrywomen to have and make that choice. Gun rights? Absolutely. Tax increase? Yes. As long as those taxes go to programs vested in our country, and not some bullshit war in Iraq that we currently dump $10 billion into every month. I pay a price to live in this country, so taxes do not bother me. World Police? Nope. I care for those in other countries, especially in war-torn Africa where I have spent a great deal of time, work and money, building back up what terrorists have destroyed. But it's enough that we have to police EVERYONE that does not stand up to our policies. Let us be done with it. Like the great Ike Eisenhower warned us, "In signing the Constitution, we did not end that great script with "And they lived happily ever after". Why do we struggle with the idea of losing our superpowers to China? Everyone else has had a turn, and we have to put soldiers everywhere just to ensure our pockets get fatter so we can keep building bigger companies to monopolize the world with.
McCain/Palin will be an interesting bit to watch. As Scott T of Billings Montana said, "I suppose Palin does help McCain if all we Americans cared about was rallying around the flag, fighting the big war on terrorism and now engaging in a cultural war on the eastern elites. Palin and McCain can rant and rave about all that until the cows come home. But, at the end of the day I have to sit down at my kitchen table and figure out how I am going to put food on the table, pay my bills, put gas in my car and hope I do not get sick as I cannot afford too. I have not heard one word offered on stage at the Republican convention that addresses the issues I face at the end of every day at my kitchen table. But with that giant American flag waving behind their podium every night, why would they even care about me and all the other millions of Americans sitting at our kitchen tables staring at our pay stubs?"
I like Obama. I like community organizers. I like change. I don't care if he is muslim, Christian, Hare Krishna. I don't have to have someone who runs for President of a country that chooses to recognize freedom of religion be of my own faith to choose him as my leader. Heaven will be full of people that most of my neighbors don't want to see, and frankly, they will wonder just how the hell they got there in the first place since they weren't American, or Republican, or LDS, or God fearing people. Is there any way at all we can just keep the good things in life, and toss out the dross and become refined once again...only this time, ALL will be invited to the dinner table; The gay, the black, the Muslim, the gay black Muslim, the white, the American Indian, the poor and oppressed, the mother who had an abortion, the mother who chose to keep her baby, the rich and pompous and all of the rest of us that fall into these categories deserve to be treated like EQUALS.
We ALL need a good wake-up call. I will give my reasons for voting for Obama later. But now, all we need is change. Let us foster it in, and prepare ourselves for a LOT of work ahead of us.
I regret to announce that I did indeed vote for George W Bush in 2000. I didn't know anything about Al Gore, except that I found it funny that he kept reminding us that he invented the Internet. I just thought that maybe since George HW Bush had done a decent enough job at the White House, his son might echo his works in legacy. Boy, was I wrong. I think that Dubya may be the dumbest president we've had to date, only slightly more dumb than Dan Quayle, and that's saying a LOT. Our President has made the USA more isolated than at any time previous in the history of our great nation. His wannabe replacement, John McCain and his pet pitbull with lipstick (Palin) scare me even more. Yes, she did refer to herself as a pitbull. With lipstick. Leno, O'Brien and Letterman were all thanking the heavens after that quip.
McCain and Palin say they love this country. I say "Bull@#$%!" Maybe more like America in the 1950's. They are holding onto the Good Ole Boy system and will not let go. All I heard last night was one-liners of sarcasm, finger pointing and hatred. Palin thinks the biggest problem in the country right now is Barack Obama. Maybe she should get out of the hockey arena and start travelling to the Lower 48 every once in a while. I got a text from my uber-conservative friend now living in Chicago last night immediately following Palin's speech and he said he was impressed. I was NOT impressed, however, and I think that people like Sarah Palin are going to destroy this country. She sure knew how to divide herself from anyone respectable. Did you hear one positive aspect of her opponent? Does she have any idea that once he wins, her son that is slated to leave for the war, will be calling Obama his Commander-in-Chief and that she will have to support him? Talk about burning bridges from the get-go.
I believe that we need to change or reshape the face of the United States of America. For example, I don't believe that leaders, men or women, have the right to tell a woman what she can or can't do with her own body, even if it means having an abortion. We DO NOT KNOW when life really begins for these babies, and that's beside the point. It is NOT free agency when we tell someone what they can or can't do. Let the women make their choices, it's theirs to make. The devil tells us what we have to do, not our leaders. Our true leaders give us a choice. I don't want to have my wife or sisters go through abortions, but I will respect the rights of my countrywomen to have and make that choice. Gun rights? Absolutely. Tax increase? Yes. As long as those taxes go to programs vested in our country, and not some bullshit war in Iraq that we currently dump $10 billion into every month. I pay a price to live in this country, so taxes do not bother me. World Police? Nope. I care for those in other countries, especially in war-torn Africa where I have spent a great deal of time, work and money, building back up what terrorists have destroyed. But it's enough that we have to police EVERYONE that does not stand up to our policies. Let us be done with it. Like the great Ike Eisenhower warned us, "In signing the Constitution, we did not end that great script with "And they lived happily ever after". Why do we struggle with the idea of losing our superpowers to China? Everyone else has had a turn, and we have to put soldiers everywhere just to ensure our pockets get fatter so we can keep building bigger companies to monopolize the world with.
McCain/Palin will be an interesting bit to watch. As Scott T of Billings Montana said, "I suppose Palin does help McCain if all we Americans cared about was rallying around the flag, fighting the big war on terrorism and now engaging in a cultural war on the eastern elites. Palin and McCain can rant and rave about all that until the cows come home. But, at the end of the day I have to sit down at my kitchen table and figure out how I am going to put food on the table, pay my bills, put gas in my car and hope I do not get sick as I cannot afford too. I have not heard one word offered on stage at the Republican convention that addresses the issues I face at the end of every day at my kitchen table. But with that giant American flag waving behind their podium every night, why would they even care about me and all the other millions of Americans sitting at our kitchen tables staring at our pay stubs?"
I like Obama. I like community organizers. I like change. I don't care if he is muslim, Christian, Hare Krishna. I don't have to have someone who runs for President of a country that chooses to recognize freedom of religion be of my own faith to choose him as my leader. Heaven will be full of people that most of my neighbors don't want to see, and frankly, they will wonder just how the hell they got there in the first place since they weren't American, or Republican, or LDS, or God fearing people. Is there any way at all we can just keep the good things in life, and toss out the dross and become refined once again...only this time, ALL will be invited to the dinner table; The gay, the black, the Muslim, the gay black Muslim, the white, the American Indian, the poor and oppressed, the mother who had an abortion, the mother who chose to keep her baby, the rich and pompous and all of the rest of us that fall into these categories deserve to be treated like EQUALS.
We ALL need a good wake-up call. I will give my reasons for voting for Obama later. But now, all we need is change. Let us foster it in, and prepare ourselves for a LOT of work ahead of us.
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